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Nigerian police have launched a search and rescue operation for 317 abducted girls from a school in Zamfara State.
The operation comes as 42 people kidnapped from a boarding school in a similar incident last week in Niger state have been released.
Kidnappings are carried out for ransom and are common in the north.
President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the latest kidnapping as “inhuman and totally unacceptable”.
The United Nations Children’s Fund also condemned the abduction of the girls and called for their safe release.
The 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in the northeastern town of Chibok by Islamist Boko Haram militants has drawn worldwide attention to the scourge of school raids in Nigeria, but the most recent attacks are suspected of ‘be the work of criminal gangs.
What’s the latest from Zamfara?
Nigerian police said in a statement that “a coordinated search and rescue operation, involving the deployment of ground and air assets” was underway.
Two helicopters were deployed.
The police also called for calm. Residents of the town of Jangebe, where the kidnapping took place, reacted angrily by attacking the vehicles that entered.
Vanguard newspaper said a convoy of journalists was attacked by a mob.
Friday’s attack occurred at 1:00 a.m. local time (midnight GMT) when a group of armed men arrived at the government secondary school for girls in Jangebe.
There are reports that the girls, aged 12 to 16, were taken to Dangulbi Forest.
Zamfara State has closed all boarding schools.
No group has so far admitted to carrying out the attack.
What happened in the State of Niger?
A total of 42 people, including 27 students, kidnapped 10 days ago from a boarding school in Kagara, in north-central Niger, have been released.
An armed gang stormed the school while the students were sleeping. A boy was killed.
The group was also taken to a nearby forest.
Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani Bello said in a tweet on Saturday: “The students, staff and relatives of Government Science Collage Kagara have regained their freedom and have been received by the Government of the State of Niger. Niger.
The liberated group reportedly arrived in Minna, the state capital. No further details have yet been released.
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